


Breathing Room

by kingdra (aroceu)



Series: July 2017 Advent Calendar [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-30 00:05:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11451870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroceu/pseuds/kingdra
Summary: Wherein there are no Hogsmeade dates, Rose Weasley is a plot device, and the only real prophecy is that Scorpius and Albus are meant to be.





	Breathing Room

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ethereally](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ethereally/gifts).



> For my advent calendar!
> 
> This probably messes up a lot of things in-canon for CC; mostly I adopted the personalities and some of the events, but really fucked with anything else. Don't expect this to be like, stellarly accurate; I just used the knowledge I already had with CC and made everything else up.

"I can't believe you asked her out," Albus was saying as they made their way back to the Slytherin dungeons. Scorpius trailed after him, chuckling under his breath - Albus seemed particularly offended on behalf of his cousin, which was so out of the ordinary that Scorpius couldn't help but not take him seriously.

"It was a joke," he told Albus, because it was. "Your cousin knew that."

"Did she, though?" Albus spun around to glare at Scorpius, who put his hands up, raising his eyebrows.

"I didn't know you were so protective of her," he said to Albus. "Considering you've not really cared much about her since we started Hogwarts--"

"That doesn't mean I don't care about her," Albus snapped.

Scorpius's stomach sank. He didn't realise how deeply he'd offended Albus--if he'd known that Albus would react in such a way, he wouldn't even have mentioned it in the first place. "I'm sorry," he said gently. "Next time I'll--ask permission before asking out any of your family." Although Scorpius couldn't think of anyone else he'd rather ask out other than Albus. Rose knew that, too.

Albus grumbled and searched under his bed for his Potions textbook. "Okay," he said to Scorpius. "'S fine. Are we going to go study?"

"You hate studying," Scorpius said, amused, but grabbed his own book and followed Albus out into the common room.

*

In the morning, they ran into a group of Gryffindor fifth years on their way to breakfast. Albus sneered at them--his cousin in particular--and Rose sneered back, before going, "Hi, Malfoy."

"Weasley." Scorpius inclined his head.

The look on Albus's face was--well, there was no putting words to it. Albus dragged Scorpius away and demanded, "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean, what am I doing?" Scorpius said, bewildered. Albus had tugged them into a corridor alcove, and his face was very red suddenly. Scorpius wondered if he'd been practicing his color changing spells on his face this morning.

"You and--" Albus floundered about. "I thought you asked Rose out as a joke! And she said no!"

"She did," Scorpius said. "What's this about? Why do you think we're--"

"Do you just snog behind my back then?" Albus said. "No, I can't--"

"Al," Scorpius said sharply. Meekly, Albus turned to him, immediately looking apologetic.

Scorpius softened his tone and said, "Rose and I aren't anything. I don't know why you think that just because we've said hello to each other this morning--"

"Because you _don't_ say hello to each other."

"--we're friends, if you want the truth," Scorpius told him. Albus crinkled his nose. "I promise. I--We--We talked, after I, um, _as a joke_ asked her out, and." Scorpius shrugged. "Now we're mates?"

"You're mates with Rose." Albus scoffed. "I can't believe it. Well," he looked thoughtful. "I reckon I can, actually, I suppose it doesn't surprise me that you would get along--"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scorpius said. They made their way back down to the Great Hall, and Albus was pretending to be pondering over the prospect.

"Well," Albus said. "You're both swots, which means you're both boring--"

"Hey," Scorpius said, laughing. He elbowed Albus. "I'm certainly not boring. Especially after all that happened last year--"

"Ugh, don't remind me."They sat down and Albus began to pile sausages on his plate. "It's just strange that you're calling Rose your mate now, after asking her out--what did even you talk about?"

"Nothing," Scorpius said innocently, focusing on his own breakfast and not meeting Albus's eyes.

*

Rose came up to Scorpius after Arithmancy. She usually sat with her Gryffindor friends, Scorpius knew, something he didn't miss when he was sitting with some Slytherins and Hufflepuffs. But as Scorpius was packing up his bag, he heard Rose say, "I'll catch up with you later," and then she was standing in front of him, tapping her foot.

"So when are you going to ask your best friend out?" she asked Scorpius.

Scorpius continued putting his bags away. "I don't see how that concerns you," he said as bravely as he could.

That meant nothing to Rose though, who yanked the last piece of parchment from his hands and shoved it into his bag. "You come asking me out as a joke before wanting to know the best ways to woo a Potter-Weasley, and you think this doesn't concern _me_?" she said.

"I was asking for advice," Scorpius said innocently, blinking at her and taking his bag from her. Rose was too riled up to protest. "Thank you for it, by the way."

Rose had said, _the best way to get Al to admit anything is to make him jealous_ , which, well. Scorpius didn't know how to make Albus jealous of anything when he didn't know how Albus felt about anything--Albus was remarkably good at being unpredictable--and he'd only seemed offended on Rose's behalf when he told him that he'd asked her out, not envious. "It's nice to know you two care about each other even though you don't act like it," he told Rose.

Rose scoffed. "Family's family, even if your family has prats," she said. "Anyway, _I_ can't believe Albus hasn't noticed, since your crush is visible from the Andromeda Galaxy."

"I appreciate the compliment," Scorpius said, feeling his cheeks turn pink. "I don't know if I want Al to know anyway, he's my best friend and I don't know if I want to ruin that."

"You've already ruined a lot, I'd be surprised if Al would ditch you just because you have _feelings_ ," Rose said pointedly. "You've nearly killed his father, recreated a new war--didn't you fall apart during that, anyway?"

"Yeah," Scorpius said. "Well, his father didn't want Al to see me, but Al wanted to--"

"Idiots," Rose muttered. But she smiled at Scorpius anyway. "I've got to Gryffindor Tower, so. Good luck with my cousin and all."

"I'll need it," Scorpius said, trying not to feel too hopeless at all of this. At the way his heart just wanted to be with Albus. "See you around, Weasley."

*

Scorpius's crush on Albus had started a long time ago, crept on him before Scorpius realised that he was staring at Albus's mouth sometimes, thinking, _I wonder what it would be like to kiss him._

They spent all their time together that it nearly felt inevitable. Albus's clinginess to Scorpius could've bothered anyone else, but Scorpius was always happy to prioritize Albus over anyone else, even though during the summer Scorpius's father would frown every time the tawny owl appeared in the window and said, "Another letter from the Potter spawn?" Scorpius had long gotten used to his father's complaints, and knew they were half-hearted at best--Draco didn't hate the Potters as much as he claimed to anymore.

Which was a benefit in Scorpius's desires to court Albus, despite that, well, he wasn't sure if Albus could be courted. He looked over at Albus thoughtfully; they were sitting under the beech tree in the courtyard and pretending to do homework when they were really watching some Hufflepuffs feed the Giant Squid. Albus had his hands behind his head, and seemed to be lost in thought.

"I'm glad we can be back to normal," Scorpius said suddenly, unable to push back the wave of affection at just Albus sitting quietly, smiling. "And just--be ourselves."

Albus looked over at him. "I'm assuming you mean after we almost started another war," he said, and rolled his eyes.

"That, and after your father didn't want us to be friends," Scorpius said. "I was honestly--I was terrified that I'd never be able to see you again. Or that we'd just not get along after everything happened."

"Scorpius, you haven't got a choice when it comes to me," Albus said to him. "Since first year, I don't--" He shrunk shyly against the tree. "I don't know what I'd do without you. If that happened, I'd _make_ it work."

"We're making it work now, aren't we?" Scorpius said. "It's still you and me, you know. Even after our fathers."

Albus made a noise of disdain. "Of course even after our fathers," he said. "Our fathers were gits. We're better than them because we're actually friends."

"Yeah," Scorpius said. He tapped the back end of his quill against his lips, trying to think about his Herbology homework, not about kissing Albus.

"Scorpius," Albus said, and Scorpius looked up. "I'm glad we're back to normal, too."

*

"Boys," Rose said, appearing at the Slytherin table and slinking down next to Scorpius. "What are you up to?"

On Scorpius's other side, Albus shot his cousin a bewildered glare. "Rose, what are you doing here?"

"Sitting with the only Slytherins who won't hex me for being here." Rose glanced at a Slytherin fifth year who was giving her Gryffindor badge the evil eye. "Oh, calm down, you can't even do nonverbals yet," she said to him.

" _I_ can," Albus said. "Get out of here, before I--"

"It's fine," Scorpius said, patting Albus's shoulder reassuringly. His palm felt hot where it made contact with Albus's body, and Scorpius quickly pulled his hand away like he was burned. Albus's frown increased. "We're just eating breakfast, Weasley."

"Oh, fun." Rose looked around the table. "I've already finished, but I was wondering how you're doing on your homework, Malfoy."

"Did you just come here," Albus said, "to talk to Scorpius about _homework_?"

Rose ignored him. Scorpius said, "Our Arithmancy homework? It's fine, I--"

"No, I meant your _other_ homework." Rose's eyes flickered pointedly behind Scorpius, in Albus's direction, and unfortunately Scorpius understood immediately.

"Oh," he said. "Um. It's fine. I haven't made a lot of progress--"

"What's she talking about, Scorpius?" Albus said, poking at his fruit and shooting his cousin another sneer. "I thought you only had Arithmancy together."

"No, we also have Divination," Rose told him.

"Divination," Albus muttered scornfully.

"It's not all shite," Scorpius said to him. "It can be quite fascinating. But--Weasley--when I do my homework is my own business, when--"

"Not if your homework spends the next holiday whinging about how you did Arithmancy homework instead of it."

Scorpius blinked at her in confusion. "I'm not sure if I'm following the metaphor anymore."

Rose sighed and Vanished the plate of eggs she'd been working on. "Get your homework sorted soon," she said. "For all of our sakes."

When she had left, Albus scowled at her back before turning to Scorpius. "You never should've asked her out," he told Scorpius. "Now she's going to tell you what to do all the time. She does that to Hugo enough."

"Hugo needs it," Scorpius pointed out, nodding over to the Gryffindor table where Hugo was clumsily reaching over for some food and Rose yanked her brother back down on the bench by the robes.

Albus looked over. "Okay, fair," he said. "But I hate that you fancy her--"

"I _don't_ fancy her."

"You might be good together though," Albus grumbled, and Scorpius wasn't sure what to make of that.

*

Rose explained her extended metaphor from breakfast later that day in Divination. "Al gets really annoying during the summers," she said. "'Scorpius this, Scorpius that.' Since you told him that you asked me out, he's going to be asking me questions all the time and not believing a word that I say."

"I thought that would make him jealous," Scorpius said, peering into his tea leaves. It was in the shape of a small spade, which meant passion. Scorpius frowned at it. "But he just said that he was protective of you. Going on about how I couldn't ask you out without his permission."

"Well, that's--" Rose pursed her lips in thought. "What the hell goes through that boy's mind about anything, anyway?"

"I don't even know." Scorpius sighed. "I wish he would just know that I fancy him without having to tell him, and then we can just--continue on being mates, as it is."

"Really?" Rose said, raising her eyebrows. "You don't want to snog him or anything like that?"

"I am not having this conversation with you."

They did each other's tea leaves, and referenced their Astronomy homework for deeper meanings. Ever since the mess with Delphine Riddle, Scorpius knew to take prophecies seriously from now, and kind of wanted to discover them as well. He didn't know if he wanted to work in the Hall of Prophecies in the Ministry, after, but it would be a useful tool for his O.W.L.s.

After class, Rose and Scorpius walked out together, since the rest of the class were Ravenclaws who got E's and O's on all their exams but didn't take the class seriously.

And it shouldn't have been much of a surprise, but Albus was waiting at the bottom of the tower for Scorpius. His eyes narrowed when he saw Rose.

"Scorpius," he said. "Cousin."

"Al." Rose said. Then, smirking, she turned to Scorpius and said, "Are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

"Scorpius furrowed his eyebrows. "Yes, with Al, why are you--"

"Do you want to come with me?" Rose asked, batting her eyelashes.

It was so obviously to get a reaction out of Albus--who was _right there_ , his ears getting visibly red--but still, Scorpius couldn't help blushing because Albus was inching dangerously closer, waiting for Scorpius to answer.

"I--uh--" Scorpius said. "No, erm--sorry--"

"You should go," Albus bit out.

Scorpius turned to him. "What?"

"Go on, you don't have to say no just because I'm here," Albus said. "Since you lot obviously fancy each other, don't let me stop you."

"I don't fancy her," Scorpius tried desperately, but Albus shook his head. Scorpius tried to grab at Albus's arm but Albus wrangled him off and hitched his bag over his shoulder, not meeting his eyes.

"I'm going to do homework," he said, before leaving.

Scorpius looked after him. "But you hate doing homework," he muttered.

Then he turned back to Rose, who was just smirking and looking entirely too satisfied. "What was that for?"

"To get Al to _say_ something to you," she said. "Give him time--he'll break eventually. He doesn't know how to shut up."

"What?" Scorpius said, but Rose waved to him.

"Don't make him ask me about you because he thinks we're dating," she said. "I wouldn't date you in a thousand years."

*

Scorpius couldn't find Albus in the Slytherin common room or the boys' dormitory. He thought about seeking Albus out, but Albus knew all the secret places in the castle thanks to that map he nicked from James all the time, so that was bound to be a hopeless feat. Instead, he sat on his bed and trawled through his own homework, hoping that Albus would come back sometime soon--he had to, eventually, come back.

Scorpius didn't see him at dinner, and managed to get through all of his homework for the week in an effort to stop himself from worrying about Albus. It wasn't until it was late at night, when Scorpius was still in the common room after everyone else had gone to bed, just putting the fire out when the bricks to the Slytherin entrance shifted.

Peering through the dark, Scorpius could see that it was Albus, trying to make his way quietly across the way. "Al," Scorpius said, and he saw Albus's figure jolt.

Albus straightened up. "Scorpius," he said, stopping in his tracks. "How's my cousin?"

Scorpius sighed. "I'm not going to Hogsmeade with her, and I don't fancy her," he said.

"It's alright, you'd be good together," Albus said. Scorpius still didn't understand that. "You don't need my permission, you're allowed to fancy--be with anyone you want. It's fine."

"It's not," Scorpius insisted. "I don't fancy her, I like someone else--"

But Albus didn't seem to be listening to him. "I just thought, since after," he said, "since after we--you suggested that we get our first kisses over with, last year, I thought we might've--but it's fine--"

"Wait," Scorpius said. "You thought we might've what?"

In the dark, it was hard to garner Albus's facial expression, though Scorpius would've bet that his cheeks were red again. And Scorpius did remember, when they were in 1981 and stranded and desperate and alone and Albus had inanely said, _I've never kissed anyone before_ , and Scorpius had blurted, _Neither have I_. And it was so close to them dying that Scorpius had suggested, _Do you want to?_ and Albus went, _Want to what?_ and Scorpius asked, _Get it over with?_ Albus hadn't really answered, just stared at Scorpius; so it was Scorpius who had bravely kissed Albus on the mouth, rather chaste, and Albus had stared at him.

And that's all it had been--a peck that Scorpius had thought Albus had forgotten about, since then Albus's father was there and they were all fighting Delphine. Scorpius had pointedly put the whole situation out of his head, since Albus hadn't treated him any differently since and Scorpius was glad that Albus hadn't brought it up, hadn't thought any differently of him afterward.

"I thought we might've, you know." Albus shrugged. "Been together or--something. Then you were talking about asking Rose out, and you've been talking to her loads, so--it's fine," he said for the third time.

"No," Scorpius said. He moved from where he'd been heading towards the boys' dormitory, across the common room until he was standing in front of Albus. "I don't--how many times do I have to say it to get it through your thick skull, Al? I _don't fancy her_."

"Then why are you with her all the time?" Albus demanded.

"Because she's been asking me about when I'd ask _you_ out!" Scorpius burst. There was no point in hiding it anymore--Albus still remembered the kiss, so Scorpius had nothing left to hide. "And you never said anything about the kiss, so I thought you forgot--"

"I'd forget you kissing me?" Albus said incredulously.

"--or didn't want to talk about it, or didn't--feel the same way." Scorpius was a foot away from Albus now, staring into his green eyes despite the darkness of the common room. The dark green light from the lake shone through the glass windows, illuminating Albus's eyes. Scorpius wanted to kiss him so badly--Albus was watching him with wonder now.

"Scorpius, I've," Albus said. "You've been my best friend for years, I don't need-- _want_ anyone other than you, I--of course I feel the same, _you_ never talked about it--"

"You didn't kiss back," Scorpius pointed out.

"I could make up for that if you want," Albus said. "And even if I didn't feel the same--I don't think anything could ruin us, even you fancying me."

"Or you fancying me," Scorpius said.

"As long as it's not my cousin," said Albus, and then shuddered. He took a step forward. "I'm going to try to give you that kiss now, and if it's bad it's your fault."

"My fault?" Scorpius laughed, as Albus got nearer and nearer. "How is it my fault? You're the one who stayed in my compartment on the first day."

"You're the one who kissed me first," Albus said, before closing the gap between them.

The kiss was sweet, and despite the lack of his own experience Scorpius could tell that they had a lot to learn. Still, he pressed his lips back, put his hands on Albus's upper arms, held him gently in the middle of the common room as Albus tried to both keep himself there and pull himself back.

"I'm so glad we're friends," Scorpius said, when they broke apart, panting inexplicably.

Albus's eyes glinted in the green light, and he said, "Me too." 

They made their way up to the boys' dormitory, hands brushing, and then holding onto each other.

*

The next day, Rose appeared at breakfast and said, "Finally."

"Hi, cousin," Albus said, piling eggs onto his plate. Then to Scorpius, "You know, I'm offended she knew that you fancied me before I did."

"I needed to do my research," Scorpius said.

Albus rolled his eyes and stole a piece of sausage from Scorpius's plate.

Scorpius turned around to Rose and said, "Thanks." His hand was wound around Albus's on the table; Albus's thumb was stroking against his own as he ate with his left hand.

"I'm just glad Al won't be asking about you all the time come the hols," Rose said. "It was really for my benefit, after all."

"So you don't want to go to Hogsmeade with Scorpius?" Albus teased.

"Nope," Rose said cheerfully. "This is the end of our friendship, Malfoy--good luck putting up with my cousin."

"I already do," Scorpius said, and he and Albus exchanged a smile. Scorpius squeezed his hand on the table.

 


End file.
